


quiet

by everlarklane



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Antivaxxer Movement, Experimental Style, F/M, au where their relationship is actually healthy, flu season, spanish influenza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 15:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everlarklane/pseuds/everlarklane
Summary: it's flu season and edward is quiet, quiet, quiet
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 108





	quiet

Edward is quiet. 

It’s not something that would normally catch Bella’s attention. Edward is one of those people who can go days without saying a word if you let him. He’s quiet, contemplative. It’s who he is. 

There are shades to his quiet though, complexities that give little insights into what he’s feeling. Some quiets are heavier than others, sitting deep in her chest with a sort of dim longing. Others are calm, peaceful, like a wave coming and going against a sun-warmed beach. 

This quiet is more like a keening, a desperately empty ache of something lost and a whisper of furious longing. It’s deafening in what it hides. 

Edward is quiet and Bella is worried. 

She begins to understand when she sees the flyer crumpled up in the garbage can of his bedroom. 

_ Get your influenza shot today! _

It’s cheery, bright reds and happy blues and an anthropomorphized syringe. It’s something she normally would walk by without thinking twice, except to maybe make sure she’s got her shot scheduled for some time that season.

It’s normal. 

Except, once upon a time it was not. 

Once upon a time, children and adults and the elderly died and suffered and dreamed of a world where the plagues that took their daughters, their parents, their aunts and uncles away disappeared, eradicated by the haphazard brilliance of human ingenuity. 

Edward died, but only partway, fever giving way to iced veins and golden eyes and immortality weighing down his unbeating heart. 

She begins to understand. 

Edward is quiet and there’s an energy to him like an agitated fly as his fingers fly across the phone screen, eyebrows pressed together. There’s a sharp tightness to his jaw, his foot tapping. 

She leans against his shoulder and peers over his shoulder. Facebook. 

He’s five paragraphs into a dressing down Carlisle would be proud of against an anti-vaxxer, telling his story in the guise of a relative and sparing no grisly detail. If Bella didn’t know him better, she would think him calm, or perhaps just irritated, but there’s a brightness to his eyes, a sheen, and she wraps an arm around his back and leans against him, warm to his ice as he types and types and types. 

It sends and he is almost boneless, held up half by Bella and half by the wall. 

She doesn’t say a word and neither does he for a very long time as he catches his breath despite not needing to breathe and he is quiet. 

“She’s so lucky,” he murmurs, and Bella entangles her fingers with his. “She’s so lucky and she has no idea.” 

Bella is quiet but her hands are warm as she holds his and Edward is not alone. 

“They are so used to what they have that they have no idea what it was like. I would have...if back then...I wouldn’t…”

They are both quiet then, their breaths intertwined. 

“She’ll understand one day,” she murmurs. “Hopefully before it’s too late.” 

“It’s not fair.”

And it’s not. 

Bella shifts so she’s holding him, her head against his chest. His heart is quiet, like always, and he slowly wraps his arms around her, his head against her hair. 

There’s nothing she can say to make this better so she is quiet and he is quiet too and it’s okay because he understands and it works. 

He’s not quite okay, but he’s alright. 

They are quiet and it’s warm. 


End file.
